– Drip, drip, drip.

Perhaps due to the heavy downpour, water flowing through the cracks was making a rhythmic noise.

Despite it still being midsummer, the chilly temperature made one’s body shrink. And an unpleasant smell stinging the tip of the nose rode on the damp air.

Just how long had she been trapped in this place?

With no windows, Leah had no idea how much time had passed since her imprisonment.

A few days ago, there was a public trial attended by numerous nobles. As expected, the trial was unfavorable to Leah, a commoner.

The fact that the Duke’s heart stopped because of the new medicine she made. That alone was enough to seal Leah’s fate.

The nobles all pointed their fingers at Leah in unison, calling her a murderer.

“Is it true that the Duke has died…?”

‘That can’t be…’

She muttered while shaking her head. If the new medicine was deadly enough to kill a person in the first place, she couldn’t be this unscathed.

That’s why she protested vehemently about this fact to the point of her neck veins bulging, but it didn’t reach them.

“Strange.”

Usually, public trials lasted for several days to discuss important matters. However, Leah’s public trial ended in less than half a day.

As if they were hastily trying to wrap up the case.

[For the crime of causing the death of Haidern, the former prince of the Kroatea Empire and current Duke, the criminal apothecary Leah is sentenced to death by hanging!]

She screamed that it wasn’t true, but the judge sentenced her to death. Leah buried her head between her knees at the terrible memories that surfaced.

“Really, I am now…”

Tears flowing from Leah’s eyes soaked her skirt.

Is the Duke really dead like that? Then will she really be hanged like this?

Leah was disheartened by the reversal of her circumstances in just a few days. Until recently, they were having peaceful days together, eating meals.

Those were the best days possible, so why did it turn out like this overnight? Her hunched figure felt endlessly miserable.

“…It’s over.”

Once the death sentence was decided at the trial, there was no reversal. The jailer said that tomorrow was the day of the execution.

‘Once this night passes, I will inevitably have my neck on the gallows.’

Leah trembled at the deep sense of loneliness piercing her heart. Just as she was having the unpleasant thought that it might be better to take her own life.

Footsteps that sounded like someone was coming down to the underground prison were heard.

“Leah.”

At the familiar voice calling her name, Leah slowly raised her head. In front of her eyes, Rikel, who had somehow entered, was making eye contact with her.

“Ri- Rikel!”

Leah hurriedly got up and approached the iron bars where he was. Leah asked Rikel in a sorrowful voice.

“What about the Duke? What happened to the Duke?”

Everyone at the court said that the Duke had died, but Leah didn’t believe that. Because there was no way the Duke could have died.

As proof, didn’t Rikel, the Duke’s right-hand man, come to see her? If he had really died, he should be the one pouring out resentment towards her.

Leah looked at Rikel with a glimmer of hope. As if pleading for him to say the words she wanted to hear soon.

“…The Duke.”

As if noticing Leah’s gaze, Rikel, who was looking at her, moved his lips. With a very troubled expression.

His amethyst eyes, which usually shone like zircon, rippled deeply in a different way than usual. But Leah had no energy to look into Rikel like that.

“…The Duke has passed away.”

‘What? Passed away. Does that mean he went back to his territory? If not…’

Leah, who had not yet grasped the situation, asked Rikel back with a dumbfounded face.

“Passed away? What does that…”

But the answer that came back was very brief.

“…He took his last breath.”

Rikel shattered even the small hope that Leah had. And quite miserably at that.

“…What?”

The Duke died because of the new medicine she made.

Her entire thought process seemed to stop at the man’s words that were too unreal.

The Duke didn’t die.

She kept telling herself that he had just lost consciousness for a while…

Once that man regained his senses, he would take her out of here. Believing that, she had endured hellish days.

“No way.”

How absurd this was. Leah’s legs, which were shaking like a leaf while holding onto the bars, suddenly gave out.

“Leah…”

At the same time, her body and mind crumbled helplessly. The light disappeared from Leah’s shining leaf-green eyes.

“How…”

And tears gradually welled up in her eyes.

“Because of the medicine I made…”

That man died.

[That murderer should be sentenced to death!]

The shouts of those who pointed fingers at her at the court a few days ago lingered in her ears.

At that time, those words were so unfair and infuriating. But now…

Tears poured down from Leah’s eyes.

“Sob. I really… the Duke…”

The years she spent with the Duke flashed through Leah’s mind like a revolving lantern.

Although his words and actions were sometimes rough, it was understandable considering the life of a man who had been living under the threat of his life.

He was rough and arrogant, but he had warmth inside.

“I killed him… I killed that man…”

The guilt that had been heavily pressing down on her shoulders suddenly swelled. The fact that the new medicine she made drove Akkia to his death drove her crazy.

It was painful. So painful that she wanted to die.

Leah screamed while holding onto the bars.

.

.

.

Leah stared into the void with dry eyes that seemed to have no more tears to shed.

A hollow gaze that seemed to hold no hope. She felt like everything was over now.

Both her bright hopes for the future and her current life. Tomorrow, she would be hanged and disappear from this world without a trace.

Just as Leah closed her eyes as if she had given up on everything.

“Do you want to live?”

Rikel’s low voice rang in Leah’s ear. When Leah didn’t answer, Rikel asked Leah again.

“If you want to escape from here, I will help you.”

Leah opened her eyes at Rikel’s words. He was asking her if she would do it as if he was sincere.

“…Are you telling me to break out of prison now?”

“Yes.”

Leah found such Rikel amusing.

‘Helping the one who killed his master.’

She couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at the absurd situation. She was already a prisoner sentenced to death.

Even if she ran away from the death sentence, which was as good as an imperial decree, she would have to live as a fugitive for the rest of her life.

Her life as an apothecary and her life as Leah were over.

Leah slowly shook her head at Rikel, who seemed to be waiting for her answer.

“Forget it.”

“…Then you’re saying you’ll die here like this? I’ll help you. I’ll help you settle down and live somewhere else. First, with me…”

“No need.”

Leah just wanted to give up on everything. Seeing Leah’s vacant appearance, Rikel’s hand gripping the iron bars tightened.

[This is the timeline separator]

On a summer afternoon when the sun was burning magnificently.

A woman was being led by a jailer to the gallows with her wrists bound behind her back.

With each step, the shackles tightening her ankles made an eerie sound, but she had no time to care.

Because it was clear that her body would be hanging there in just a few minutes.

‘It’s all over now.’

Leah’s gaze looking at the gallows was empty.

Her lips, which hadn’t had a sip of water, were cracked and dry like a barren desert, and her leaf-like eyes that always had a lively look were lifeless.

Was it because the sun was burning too hot? Or was it because of the fear of death? She was wobbling as if she might collapse at any moment.

‘I shouldn’t have come here in the first place.’

No, at least she should have run away the day she became the Duke’s personal physician. But now, even this regret was futile.

Leah let out a hollow laugh. It had been 22 years since she was reincarnated alone in this world.

The past days of desperately trying to survive in this world unfolded like a panorama.

“The execution of the apothecary Leah will now begin. The prisoner, come here and kneel.”

When the jailer roughly pushed her back, she knelt as if she would collapse.

Only then, when the face of the protagonist who had caused a stir in the whole capital was seen, everyone without exception moved their mouths.

– I heard that Duke Haidern took his last breath after taking the medicine made by that woman.

– How pitiful. Still young…

– Pitiful? She’s as good as a murderer!

Among them, there were those who sympathized with her and those who blamed the young apothecary’s reckless actions.

“Does the criminal Leah have any last words?”

‘Last words? There’s no way I have such a thing.’

Because that man died because of the medicine she made.

When Akkia’s blood-red eyes came to mind, heavy guilt and intense regret crushed her entire body. So heavy that it was difficult to even breathe.

‘If I hadn’t done that, would it have been different…?’

However, realizing that it was a futile thought, Leah closed her eyes. Hoping for this pain to end quickly.

As she seemed to have given up, the judge raised his hand.

At the signal to carry out the execution, just as the jailer was tying a rope around her neck.

“Stop.”

A man’s voice quietly resonated throughout the courtroom.